--- title: "Pay contractors via PayPal from timesheets" description: "An approved timesheet creates a PayPal payout to the contractor, with hours summed and multiplied by their agreed rate in the Zap before anything is sent." url: "https://www.formformform.com/automations/paypal-pay-contractors-from-timesheets" type: static generatedAt: "2026-08-23T18:56:58.727Z" --- ![PayPal logo](/logos/integrations/paypal.svg) # Pay contractors from their weekly timesheets An approved weekly timesheet creates a PayPal payout to the contractor for the hours logged at their agreed rate. When this happens New submission on your "Submit completed work" form Do this Create a PayPal payout to the contractor's PayPal email for the agreed amount One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form. Agencies that pay freelancers weekly usually run two separate systems: somewhere the work is logged, and an afternoon spent moving money. This flow joins them, so an approved timesheet creates the payout itself rather than feeding a spreadsheet someone pays from on Friday. It fits a small, stable roster where each contractor has an agreed rate. The Zap does the arithmetic — daily hours summed, multiplied by that rate — and PayPal sends the money to the address on the sheet. ## Setting it up 1. 1 Publish the timesheet form and say plainly in the Email Address help text that it must be the address attached to the contractor's PayPal account, not their agency email. 2. 2 Keep a rate per contractor somewhere the Zap can read it. A Formatter Lookup Table keyed on Employee or Contractor ID is the least fragile version. 3. 3 In Zapier, pick formformform, the New Submission trigger and the timesheet form, then load a completed week as test data. 4. 4 Add a filter that only continues when "Has Your Supervisor Verbally or Digitally Approved These Hours?" is yes, so an unapproved sheet never reaches the payout step. 5. 5 Add Formatter steps to sum Monday Hours through Sunday Hours with a default of 0 for blank days, then multiply the total by the rate the lookup returned and round to two decimal places. 6. 6 Add PayPal's Create Payout action, connect the account that funds payouts, and set the currency explicitly. 7. 7 Map Email Address to the payout recipient and the calculated figure to amount, then build the note from Week Ending Date and Work Description Summary so the contractor can see what they were paid for. 8. 8 Set the sender item ID from Employee or Contractor ID and Week Ending Date, run a real week through as a test, confirm it in PayPal's payouts report, then turn the Zap on. ## What maps where Using the [Timesheet Submission Form](https://www.formformform.com/templates/timesheet-submission-form) as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way. Form field PayPal Email Address Payout recipient email Worker Full Name Recipient name in the payout note Employee or Contractor ID Sender item ID on the payout, paired with the week Week Ending Date Payout note, so a payment matches a week Work Description Summary Payout note the contractor receives Monday Hours Summed with the other daily hours, then multiplied by the agreed rate to give the payout amount ## Variations worth knowing Batch the week into one payout run Put a Digest by Zapier step between the filter and PayPal, releasing every Friday afternoon. Timesheets accumulate through the week and the payouts leave together, which keeps the funding balance predictable and gives you one report line to reconcile instead of eleven scattered across five days. Split payouts by client Agencies billing several clients often fund payouts from different accounts. Add a Zapier Paths step on Client Company Name, with a Create Payout action on each path connected to that client's PayPal account. The hours arithmetic sits before the split, so there is still one place to fix if a rate changes. ## If something isn't arriving The payout amount comes out as 0, or with four decimal places. Blank day fields arrive as empty strings and break the sum, so set a default of 0 on each in the Formatter step. Then round the result to two decimals before PayPal sees it — an amount carrying more precision than the currency allows is rejected outright. A payout sits in PayPal as unclaimed. The address in Email Address is not attached to a PayPal account. PayPal holds the money and emails an invitation to claim it. Get the correct PayPal address from the contractor, cancel the unclaimed item, and re-run the Zap from Zap history rather than asking for the timesheet again. ## Frequently asked questions Is a self-reported approval safe to pay on? The approval question is answered by the contractor, so the filter is trusting them. Where the sums justify it, have supervisors confirm hours first and run the payout Zap from a second, internal form that only they can submit. Can the contractor see the payment status on the form? No. The connection runs in one direction: a submission triggers the payout and nothing comes back. PayPal's payouts report is the record of what was sent, and the form has no knowledge of what happened after it fired. What stops the same week being submitted twice? Nothing on the form itself. Building the sender item ID from Employee or Contractor ID and Week Ending Date makes a duplicate obvious in the payouts report, and a Zapier Storage lookup on that same value can stop the second run before it pays. ## Related automations - [Draft an invoice from every quote request](https://www.formformform.com/automations/paypal-draft-invoices-from-quotes) A quote request builds a draft PayPal invoice with the service and a starting figure, ready to adjust once scope is agreed. - [Invoice a customer the moment they order](https://www.formformform.com/automations/paypal-invoice-new-orders) Every submitted order sends the buyer a PayPal invoice for the item and quantity they chose, with a pay-now link. - [Invoice attendees for the tickets they choose](https://www.formformform.com/automations/paypal-invoice-event-attendees) Each registration sends a PayPal invoice for the ticket tier chosen, priced per seat including any guests. - [Pay a referral reward when a claim comes in](https://www.formformform.com/automations/paypal-pay-referral-rewards) A verified referral claim sends the advocate a PayPal payout for a fixed reward, with the referral named in the note. - [Send expense reimbursements as payouts](https://www.formformform.com/automations/paypal-reimburse-expense-claims) Each expense claim creates a PayPal payout to the employee for the amount claimed, with the merchant and purpose in the note. - [Add counter signups to your Customer Directory](https://www.formformform.com/automations/square-signups-to-customer-directory) A signup at the till or on your site becomes a Square customer profile straight away, spelled the way the customer typed it. - [All PayPal integration details →](https://www.formformform.com/integrations/paypal) - [Start from the Timesheet Submission Form →](https://www.formformform.com/templates/timesheet-submission-form) - [Browse every automation →](https://www.formformform.com/automations) ## Build the form first The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow. [Start free](https://app.formformform.com/register?utm_source=landing&utm_medium=bottom&utm_campaign=automations&utm_content=paypal-pay-contractors-from-timesheets)